What Type Of Problems Does A Child Psychologist Treat?
In recent decades, child psychology is receiving the importance and recognition it deserves as an essential therapeutic modality to ensure the mental health and well-being of the little ones.
Luckily, more and more fathers and mothers choose to go to a child psychologist to treat any type of problem that their child may present at any level, and currently there are more and more areas of intervention in which A professional in this branch specializes. However, most people do not know exactly What type of problems are addressed in the consultation of a child psychologist If this is your case, this article will interest you.
What are the main problems that a child psychologist treats?
If you want to know the main problems that a child psychologist treats, keep reading, as we will see their characteristics and symptoms (in the case of those that constitute psychopathology).
1. Learning disorders
Learning disorders are one of the main specializations that child psychologists address in boys and girls. This type of alterations has part of its causes in the functioning of the brain and affects an area that is essential for the subsequent development of the child: correct learning at all levels of the educational system.
Early detection of this type of disorders will ensure that the child overcomes his problems in the educational field; On the contrary, if the learning disorder is not detected in time, it can continue to cause many problems throughout the person’s life and because of this, other emotional, behavioral or cognitive disorders can also be added to the initial disorder. .
The main learning disorders are dyslexia or specific learning disorder with difficulty in reading and dyscalculia or specific learning disorder with mathematical difficulty.
2. ADHD
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder It is a neurobiological disorder that is first expressed in childhood more present in boys than in girls, whose main symptoms are lack of attention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.
To be able to speak of a case of ADHD, these symptoms must not be caused by another medical problem, and must interfere with the child’s correct performance, occurring very frequently.
Finally, it should be noted that ADHD is usually associated with other typical childhood disorders, among which learning disorders stand out.
3. Conduct disorder
Conduct disorder is made up of patterns of antisocial behavior that usually appear in childhood and are related to aggressive and destructive behaviors that affect public property, private property or the physical integrity of other people, such as vandalism and theft. In addition, these types of disorders can be related to irresponsible behavior such as school absenteeism.
It is considered that the causes of conduct disorder are multifactorial and are made up of biological predispositions and are fostered by negative or unstructured family environments.
4. Lack of social skills
The lack of social skills in children are those that prevent or hinder the correct and normal functioning of the child in a social environment with other people. This results in lack of friends, social anxiety, shyness and excessive introversion
5. Behavioral problems
Another area that child psychology professionals address in their consultations are behavioral problems of all kinds that the child or adolescent may present.
These types of problems are also based on a willingness on the part of the child to break the rules, but they are less serious than behavioral disorders.
The most common behavioral problems are tantrums in young children, deficits in anger control, aggression or impulsivity.
6. Fears and phobias
Phobias and extreme fears that occur in childhood are other very common problems that can be present in the development of children until their adolescence, and like many other disorders, they must be treated during childhood to make it easier for the person to avoid maintain them into adulthood.
There are many types of fears and phobias that usually appear in childhood and adolescence, and as in adults, these have very diverse causes, but in this case they are reinforced by the tendency to magical thinking in the little ones.
Thus, the most common childhood fears and phobias are fear of the dark, social phobias, fear of imaginary beings, school phobias and phobias of certain situations or objects.
7. Self-esteem problems
Children’s self-esteem is the starting point of the person they will be in the future That is why problems of this type in childhood can be a real source of long-term discomfort for the correct development of the child on an emotional, cognitive and behavioral level.
These problems currently constitute one of the most common reasons for consultation among child psychologists, and the main self-esteem problems in children and adolescents usually occur in the social, family, academic or physical sphere (the latter can worsen in adolescence). .
Traumas are intense and negative experiences that significantly affect the unconscious and, by extension, a person’s life. In the case of childhood trauma, these They can have a harmful influence for decades on the person who suffers from it if they are not treated as soon as possible during the first years of life
There are many causes that a specific trauma can have; Among the main ones, cases of mistreatment or sexual abuse, intense fears, bullying or the sudden death of a loved one stand out.
9. Family problems
Problems in the family environment also tend to be common reasons for consultation both with child psychologists and specialists in family psychology or mediation.
The family problems that a child psychologist frequently addresses are cases of separation or divorce of parents, poor management of discussions about the rules to be followed within the home, frequent fights with siblings or problems in the way the little ones regulate their impulses.
10. ASD
Finally, Autism Spectrum Disorders can be highlighted as reasons for regular intervention by a child psychologist, given that They are psychopathologies that must be treated as soon as possible to enhance the quality of life of the people who develop them, taking into account that the symptoms appear in childhood.
These disorders are neurological and developmental disorders that have effects on the way the child communicates and behaves in society, as well as on the way the child learns; In many cases, they are associated with intellectual disability.
